"You look lovely, Luna." Harry stood next to the steps that led up to Ravenclaw Tower and watched as Luna descended. She was wearing a strange dress, to be certain, but aside from the chaotic frills and mirrors sewn in, she had put her hair up and replaced her radish earrings with what looked like beets.

Luna gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Harry. You look lovely as well."

Harry grinned and held out his arm. "Shall we?"

She took it, and they walked down to the Entrance Hall, where everyone was still milling about, waiting for the doors to open. Harry searched the crowd, looking for a familiar face. They had managed to get caught up in the Beauxbaton group, and Harry didn't know any of their Hogwarts dates.

"Do you see Blaise and Pansy anywhere?" Harry asked as Luna's eyes took in the crowd. There was no argument about who had better vision between Harry and Luna. "Or Hermione or Dudley?"

"I see Hermione," Luna said. She pointed vaguely in the direction of the Champions that were lining up just in front of the door. Harry caught a glimpse of brown hair and a blue robe behind Krum, but soon the crowd closed the gap between them and he lost her again.

"She seems busy," Luna added. Harry shrugged and began leading them slowly through the crowd.

Harry had found a clique of Hufflepuffs and was trying to politely make his and Luna's way out to the other side of the yellow press when the crowd suddenly surged forward. It seemed that the doors had opened and they were being let inside. Harry and Luna held their positions and managed to enter the Hall behind theHufflepuffs instead of with them.

They filtered in with the rest of the crowd and ended up ringing a dance floor. Harry glanced at Luna, nervous, but she didn't seem to be eyeing it unduly. She was looking up at the decorations on the walls and ceilings.

"They've forgotten the oak branches," she told Harry. "They're important for keeping the holly's influence under control."

Harry nodded, though without Anthony around, he wasn't sure if this was common wizarding knowledge or Luna knowledge.

"I think the tables are made of oak, actually," Ron said. Harry startled, but Luna must have been aware of his presence, because she only nodded and peered over at one of the groupings of tiny tables beyond the dance floor. "That would work better than just having branches lying about, since there's holly everywhere."

Common wizarding knowledge then. Harry took note.

"Hi, Ron," Harry said, and glanced around at the nearby people. "Where's your date?"

Ron's ears turned red. "I decided to come alone," he said stiffly. Harry kept his mouth shut and turned back to the dance floor. The three of them watched from the crowd as the Champions swept in and began to dance.

If Harry hadn't known that Hermione was the one with Krum, he would never have recognised her. Her hair was… shiny, and her face looked painted. Her robes were very nice and blue, and generally speaking, she seemed happy dancing with Krum and the other Champions.

"Hermione looks very pretty tonight," Luna said, mirroring Harry's thoughts. Ron frowned at them and glanced around.

"Where is she? I haven't seen her yet." Ron grimaced. "I bet her mystery date is some loser from Hufflepuff."

Harry winced. Apparently, not only had Ron not noticed Hermione on the dance floor, he had also failed to realize that they were currently standing on the fringe of a crowd of upper year Hufflepuffs.

"She's dancing," Harry said. "The one in the blue."

Ron's jaw dropped. Harry took this moment of distraction to pull Luna away. The Hufflepuffs had overheard, and were rustling with quiet indignation. They found a table near a few other people in Harry's year and sat down.

"I think," Luna said after a long moment, her large eyes watching the dance floor where couples were beginning to join the Champions, "That when you want to do something you're afraid of, it's best to do it in a large crowd."

Harry sagged. "You want to dance, don't you? I don't know how to dance. I'm sorry, Luna."

"It's okay, Harry," Luna said. "I only learned the tango and swing from Daddy. All the other dances I know, I learned on my own. I can teach you."

"Maybe later, Luna," Harry said, listening to the end notes of the song that had been playing with relief. "They're done dancing now. I think we're going to eat."

Sure enough, couples began making their way from the dance floor out among the tables. Hermione was sitting with the Champions, but Harry's other friends managed to find them. Neville and Ginny Weasley sat at the next table over, waving a greeting, and Blaise and Pansy sat down with Harry and Luna, looking like they'd just been dancing. Pansy was fanning herself, and her cheeks were the same colour as her dress: bright pink.

"Having fun yet?" she asked, grinning. "Blaise spent the entire first number trying really hard to step on each of my toes individually."

Harry felt marginally better. "So, you don't know how to dance either?" he asked Blaise.

Blaise scowled. "I can dance perfectly well, thank you. I've been ballroom dancing since I was four. Pansy spent the entire first number trying to trip me up. I was taking deliberate aim."

"This dress is the height of fashion right now," Pansy said. "I'll have you know, if any of the Hogwarts girls had any sense at all, they would have been vivid green with envy. I'll thank you not to insult my dress again, Zabini."

"Green might have been a better colour for it," Blaise muttered under his breath. He smiled charmingly at Pansy's narrow-eyed expression. "Oh look, menus! Let's order!"

Dudley sat down at Neville and Ginny's table so that his and Harry's chairs were back to back. He had a curly haired girl with him that Harry didn't recognise.

"Hi, Dudley," Harry said, turning around with Luna to talk. "I see you managed to find a date without our help."

"Yeah," Dudley said, gesturing at the girl next to him. "This is Delilah Diggle. She's in Hufflepuff."

Harry nodded at Delilah and thought that she had to be a third year. She seemed excited to be here, anyway, and smiled enough at Dudley.

Ron showed up then, and pulled a chair up next to Neville. "Hey guys," he said, sounding grumpy. "Do you have any idea how many times my feet got stepped on on the way over here?"

Delilah cast him a scornful glance and turned back to Dudley, engaging him in animated conversation about gobstones.

After dinner, Luna did indeed try to teach Harry to dance. She led him over to the side of the dance floor, deaf to his mumbled objections, and proceeded to walk him through a simple swing dance. Pansy and Blaise sailed past every so often and snickered at Harry's pitiful attempts. Luna assured him that once he got the hang of it, even a blibbering humdinger wouldn't dance as well. There was no one around at the time to explain what a blibbering humdinger was, but Harry decided to take it as encouragement nonetheless.

After a while, Luna let Harry take a break, and they found the punch bowl. Just past the refreshments was a set of doors that led outside to what looked like a path lined with rose bushes, and Harry wandered over to investigate. When Luna followed, Harry led them out on to the path, thinking that the further away from the music they were, the less likely it would be that he'd have to dance to it.

They walked amiably along, and Luna hummed and picked flowers. As they neared a small clearing, Harry heard a deep feminine voice raised in what sounded like anger. He slowed down and peered through a bush to find Hagrid sitting on a bench with the headmaster of Beauxbatons standing over him, looking upset. Hagrid didn't look any happier. Harry remembered them dancing an hour ago and surmised that the date hadn't gone well. Glancing around for another path to take, Harry found that Luna had gone on without him.

Harry kept going, but he couldn't find Luna. She had disappeared. The rose bushes were arranged like a maze, and he had a feeling he'd taken a wrong turn several forks back, and now he'd never find her. He kept running into snogging couples though, which was awkward. He decided to aim for the Great Hall again.

He had found the right path and had nearly reached the doors to the Hall when a portion of a conversation caught his ear.

"…Lovegood, of all people…"

Luna must have passed by here, then, if someone was talking about her. Harry slowed down to listen to the conversation going on just beyond the doorway, inside the Hall.

"…not even a proper Slytherin, always hanging around with those mudbloods and blood traitors in Gryffindor."

"I can't believe you were friends with him, Draco. He's a dangerous sort to associate with, if you catch my meaning."

Harry felt a cold weight settle in his stomach. He narrowed his eyes and listened for a response.

"Well I had to, you know," Draco said, sounding annoyed. "My father said he could be useful. The Boy-Who-Lived in Slytherin and all. No one had any idea what that meant. It's not like we were actually friends or anything. And now we know better."

Harry stumbled back, blinking. He felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. Draco had sounded insulted at the very notion that he and Harry might have been friends. And even this year, when Harry had been so mad at Draco for ignoring him, he had never had any idea that Draco thought…

Harry didn't want to think too deeply about what he was feeling just then, else he might go inside and hit Draco right in the middle of the Yule Ball. He stormed off, as far away from the Great Hall as he could get, and when he hit a dead end, he didn't even pause.

"Reducto!" A small hole opened up in the bushes. Harry made it larger and forced his way through, still furious.

He stomped away across the grounds, headed away from the castle. Otherwise, he didn't really have a goal in mind. There was a ringing in his ears that drowned out most other noise, which was probably why he didn't hear anyone calling him.

"Harry! Are you okay?" Poliakoff pulled up beside him, having apparently run after him. He was panting.

Harry's jaw tightened. "I'm fine. What do you want?"

"You are… upset," Poliakoff said, holding his hands up in a conciliatory fashion and tripping over his feet when Harry glanced at him. "I thought I could help?"

Harry was in a bad enough mood that Poliakoff's bumbling annoyed him instead of pacifying him. "How exactly to you plan to do that?"

"Vell." Poliakoff rubbed his eyebrow with the heel of his palm. "We could go to Hogsmeade and you can talk, if you want. It is about Draco Malfoy, yes?"

Harry's bad mood, barely constrained for Poliakoff, exploded again. "That bastard has a lot of explaining to do," he raged. Poliakoff nodded and turned him away from the Forest, where his path had been taking them, and toward Hogsmeade. It was dark already, and Harry was walking very quickly. Even with his longer legs, Poliakoff stumbled to keep up.

"He just said…! Back there, he just told them that- that he was only pretending to be friends with me to see if I could be useful! That stupid git stopped talking to me, fine, but then he turns around and starts telling people that? As if he never liked me, as if we really weren't ever friends?"

Poliakoff nodded sympathetically, though Harry ignored him.

"I know we were friends before this year," he said furiously. "I don't know what his problem is now, but I know we were friends. I have way too much blackmail material on him for him to have been faking it all this time."

Poliakoff nodded again, steering him along the path so that he didn't end up in the snow again. They were coming up on the gates out of Hogwarts quickly.

"Who does he think he is?" Harry fumed. "He is such an arse! I hate him sometimes, you know?"

Poliakoff did know, if his continual nodding was any indication. The wind blew, rustling nearby trees.

"Actually," Harry stopped in his tracks. "You know what? I'm going back there. I'm going to find him. Then I'm going to hit him. Then I'm going to tell him what I think of him! I am so sick of him this year!"

"Harry," Poliakoff sounded alarmed. "Ve were going to Hogsmeade, remember? You should calm down. Do not hit anyone."

"No, that's a good idea, actually," Harry said, and started back on his way to the castle. Poliakoff hovered around him, concerned. "If I hit him, he'll have to sit there for long enough to listen to me tell him what a git he is."

With this new plan in mind, Harry felt calmer. By the time he reached the castle again (through the front doors, rather than the impromptu window he'd made in the rose bushes) he was even able to school his expression into neutrality. All the better to catch Draco by surprise when he hit him right on the nose.

By now, it was getting late. When Harry walked into the Great Hall, Poliakoff at his heels, the crowd had halved at least. It took Harry all of three minutes to realize that Draco and his friends had left already. The snow had been at least ankle deep outside; both Harry and Poliakoff's robes and shoes were damp. Harry realized he was cold.

"I do not see him," Poliakoff said. Having realized upon reaching the castle that Hogsmeade was no longer an option, Poliakoff seemed to have come to terms with helping Harry find and hit Draco. He was gamely searching the crowd, using his height to his advantage.

"That's because he's gone," Harry said. His shoulders slumped, and he dropped down at a nearby empty table. Poliakoff sat with him. "This is stupid. I'm not going to hit him. He's never going to talk to me again anyway." Harry scrubbed at his forehead, where a headache was forming. He felt very tired, all of a sudden. "Even if he does, I don't think I'd want to answer." He stood up abruptly and glanced around one last time. Pansy and Blaise were still in the Hall, tucked away in a quiet corner and sitting awfully close. Neville and Ginny were dancing. Otherwise, all his friends were gone. "I'm going to bed. Thanks, Poliakoff. Goodnight."

Christmas morning dawned quietly. Harry didn't even bother to draw back the hangings on the side of his bed that was next to Draco's, and instead opened his presents alone. Blaise wandered over to exchange and discuss presents, and Harry teased him lightly about the Yule Ball and Pansy.

Harry received presents from Dudley (and Uncle Vernon), Hermione, Blaise, Pansy, Anthony, Luna, and Sirius and Remus. Most of it was standard fare, but the presents from his godfather and former professor were the best by far.

A tawny owl had been sitting quietly at the foot of Harry's bed when he woke, and it hooted at him whenever he shifted. It had a bundle of square parchment bound to its leg. It didn't leave when Harry untied it.

Scribbled on the front of the parchment was a note:

Happy Christmas, Harry!

To our understanding, you already have a lot of pictures of Lily and her side of the family. We thought some pictures of James (and his friends and family) would complement your collection. Enclosed are the combined efforts of Moony and myself to acquire as many photos as possible for you.

In a different handwriting:

Sirius has charmed a few of the photos, against my better judgement.

Harry grinned and opened the parchment. He let the stack of photos spill out onto his bed, feeling a bit nostalgic for his first Christmas at Hogwarts as he sorted through them.

Some of the pictures were of James when he was younger than Harry, even. Many of them were of him and Sirius and Remus while at school. Pettigrew was in a couple, but Sirius seemed to spend a lot of time in those pictures shoving him out of view. That was probably what Remus meant when he said Sirius had charmed them. Harry shook his head and sifted through the rest.

There were a few of James and Lily together, smiling and waving at the camera. Some pictures even included Lily and James holding a baby, Harry.

The lack of scar was strange; Harry had never seen himself without it. The three of them looked happier than anything he could have expected.

He spent a bit longer staring at each picture, and spared a thought that he'd have to get another photo album. There were at least thirty photos in all. Sirius and Remus had really gone out of their way. He picked up the parchment eventually, to finish reading the note.

The owl that delivered this package is a male tawny, about two years old. We bought him for you, and haven't named him. Now you don't have to borrow Dudley's owl whenever you want to send us a letter.

Harry blinked at the owl. The owl resolutely did not blink back. Harry's snake took this moment to crawl out of the empty wrappings he had been investigating, apparently having sensed a change in Harry's mood.

"Why is that bird in your bed?" she asked. She had been spending a lot of time roaming Hogwarts on her own this year, and had been quite taken with the Owlery, at least until she discovered that the owls there disapproved of her deeply, and with claws. As such, she was wary of most large birds and full of adoration for Hagrid, who usually patched her up.

"He's my new owl," Harry explained. "He'll deliver letters and packages for me."

"It won't live here with us, will it?" The snake seemed discomfited by this idea. "It doesn't like me."

Harry smiled. "You can't know he doesn't like you. He hasn't done anything."

"It doesn't like me," the snake insisted. She slithered up Harry's arm to his shoulder, and hissed at the bird. "I can tell. It wants to eat me. I don't like it either."

"He'll probably stay in the Owlery," Harry said, running a soothing finger down his snake's scales.

"Good," she said. "They can all claw each other, the barbarians."

Anthony had been teaching the snakes new words again, Harry noted with amusement.

"He needs a name," Harry said, just to see what the snake would say. "What do you think?"

"A name?" Harry remembered the conversation they'd had back when he offered a name to his snake. "A word used to describe and label someone so that they can be differentiated from others…" Clearly his snake remembered as well. "You should call it-"

What followed was a long string of meanings that Harry didn't think would actually translate into English. He caught most of it, though, and it was all very crude.

"I'm not calling him that!" Harry snickered. "I don't think I could even repeat all that properly."

The snake reared back, tilted her head toward Harry's ear, and said it all again, slowly. This time, Harry caught several key phrases, including 'scaleless egg thief' and 'two-legged pile of shed skin".

"Right," Harry said. He gave the bird a reassuring smile as he shifted. He was probably uncomfortable with all the hissing. "Definitely not calling him that. Be nice."

"I will not," the snake said, stubbornly. "It wants to eat me. Tell it I'm watching it."

"I can't talk to him like I can talk to you," Harry told her. "I don't speak bird language."

Harry's snake made a satisfied sound and coiled around his neck, preening. "Good."

"So what are you going to call him, then?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm not sure. I just got him this morning."

He and Dudley were sitting on the windowsill in the Owlery, admiring Harry's new bird.

"It's good that you got your own owl, finally," Dudley said. "Now Whitey can rest more between flights." Whitey flew over and landed between them, allowing Dudley to smooth the feathers on her head.

Harry nodded and hummed his agreement as his own bird hopped up onto his knee, investigating the new arrival.

"Actually," Dudley continued, hopefully. "I was going to send a letter out with Whitey today, but she's looking kind of tired. Would you mind if I borrow your owl?"

Harry shrugged. "I've borrowed yours often enough over the years. I don't see why not. Are you writing to Uncle Vernon? Tell him I said thanks for the gloves. They're really nice."

"I'll tell him, but I'm not writing to him." Dudley looked away, out toward the lake. His voice was quiet. "I've got to send a letter to my mum for Christmas."

Harry blinked a couple times. He pulled a knee up to his chest, feeling a bit uncomfortable. "You're still writing to her?" He paused. "She writes back, then? That's g-"

"She-she hasn't… written back. Yet." Dudley spoke slowly, as though he was reaching through a thorny bush to pull each word out. "The letters come back, usually. But… they're opened, sometimes. So…"

"Yeah," Harry said, and cleared his throat. He stared down at his new owl, not really sure what to say. "I… I guess if it was my mum, I'd keep writing too."

Dudley swallowed and nodded.

They sat in silence for a minute, just watching their owls as they shifted and hooted periodically at each other.

"So, the girl you took to the Yule Ball," Harry said eventually. "How did you meet her?"

"Delilah?" Dudley laughed and scratched his head. "I was leaving breakfast a couple days before the Ball, thinking about how I couldn't let you and Loon-Luna change your minds and decide I needed help finding a date. She and her friends were passing by, so I asked her."

Harry grinned. "You just walked up, picked her out of a small crowd, and asked? And she said yes?"

"Well…while they were walking by, she mentioned that she really wanted to go and couldn't because she didn't have a date." Dudley shrugged and grinned back. "And then she did."

"Clever," Harry laughed. "She seemed nice."

Dudley nodded and waggled his eyebrows. "She was really nice."

Harry's mouth dropped open. "Dudley!"

Dudley grinned and held up his hands defensively. "What? We had a great time. We're going to Hogsmeade together next weekend."

"Wow, that's great," he said, shaking his head. "Congratulations then."

"What about you and Luna? Is she-"

"'Really nice'? Going to Hogsmeade with me next week?" Harry grinned. "No. We went as friends, mostly. She spent part of the Ball teaching me how to dance, and then I lost her."

"You…lost her?" Dudley frowned. "How do you lose a girl?"

"Well," Harry said, "She was walking through the rosebushes with me one minute, and then I looked away, and she was gone. So I lost her. We had fun though."

Dudley smirked. "Until you lost her."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, until I lost her."

"Good job, Harry. Very smooth."

"Shut up, Dudley. Go back to your Tower."

"How about we name him Paracelsus?" Harry consulted the list he and Hermione had complied. "It's the name of a famous alchemist."

"Too dignified."

"What do you think of Shiva? It's a Hindu god, also known as the destroyer."

"Fitting." His snake coiled more comfortably around his wrist as she considered the name. "I don't like it."

"Loki? The trickster god. He turned evil and the other gods had to chain him to a rock."

"Could we chain the bird to a rock?"

Harry snorted. "No."

"Then no."

"How about something simple, then. Gall, the patron saint of birds."

"That bird is not a saint. Don't be deceptive, Harry."

Harry laughed out loud, startling a passing second year. "Alright, we'll forget the saints and gods then. How about Abaddon? It means chaos and destruction."

The snake turned this over thoughtfully. "I like it. But it still sounds too dignified."

Harry shook his head. "Well of course he's going to have a dignified name. I'm not going to name him Stormageddon or something ridiculous like that."

The snake reared up with interest. "What does that mean?"

Harry ran an exasperated hand through his hair. "I don't know. It's a storm crossed with an Armageddon, which is the end of the world. But it's not a real name."

"I like it," she said adamantly. "We will call your bird Stormageddon."

Harry laughed. "No we won't. I think I'm going to go with Loki, actually."

"No, Stormageddon is perfect," the snake said firmly, and wouldn't hear another word on it. Harry made the mistake of telling Blaise and Dudley about the conversation, and from then on, everyone but Harry called his bird Stormageddon. It got to the point that Loki started answering to that instead, to Harry's immense frustration.

A/N: When Diimortal suggested Stormageddon, I HAD to do it. I didn't know how I would do it, but I HAD to. It was very important. I know I said the name had to make sense and be something he'd come up with, but I think it works this way! Frig, man. Stormageddon. You guys have got to hate how undignified the owl names are in this story. Harry tried! By the way, Stormy is, in fact, the owl's nickname, for those of you that wondered. Also, credit to bungler and goku for coming up with 'Loki', among others, and to Nahmen, who came up with Paracelsus, which I probably would have used had I not found Stormageddon. Everyone had brilliant suggestions! Thanks so much!

Anyway, thank you all so much for your reviews, and for enjoying this story! I can't believe how much positive feedback I get for this, it's insane, and I love you all, especially those of you who were reviewing when I first wrote it, and are somehow still here. I've been writing MR since high school. I've graduated college already. I'm not even halfway done! I've got to get going here. And I will!